Smoky Jo's Food Smoking Blog

Courses and a new project…

Smoky Jo — Sun, 05 May 2013 11:11:31 +0000

Smoky Jo has a very low boredom threshold and when she had finished writing the book and a training contract came to an end she looked around for a new project… and found it. www.ShapChippy.co.uk . A mile and a half away at the bottom of the hill; We have had to fix major building faults and completely refurbish it but we are now building a good team and getting good fish and chips out to a patient public!

Meanwhile smoking hasn’t been neglected and we have had some terrific courses…

Sunny smoking in Shap

Making sausages to smoke

Fabulous hot smoked salmon ready to eat

Catching a trout to brine and smoke

Welcome to you hardy food smokers!

Smoky Jo — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 14:08:59 +0000

Florence the filing cabinet smoker, close to the house to try and find some shelter

It was lovely to fire up Florence the Filing Cabinet Smoker and the rest of the gang on Friday for the first Shap Smoking course of 2013! Once again I find myself tempted to write more about the weather than the food… yes it’s April, yes it snowed, yes it sleeted, yes it was bitterly cold but NO, we were not defeated!

Most of our smokers were relatively local with Mike and Trish the most distant having travelled from Chester; at least two had at least semi-professional interest in food smoking. Edwina runs a stunningly high quality establishment near Newbiggin on Lune (very close to Bessy Beck trout farm, where we fish on our two day course and all our trout for smoking comes from). Cheskin House is a wonderful cross between a top end B & B with meals and a restaurant with rooms. The wine cellar is a particular attraction…

I have put some pictures on the main site gallery but here is one of the smokers huddling in the shed as the snow whistles by…

Huddling in the smoking shed as the snow whistles by

A question of smoked lamb…

Smoky Jo — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:56:41 +0000

Just had a query from a former Smoky Jo guest which I thought worth sharing…
Hey guys, just touching base & hopefully picking you’re brains a little.
I have recently attempted to cold smoke a lamb joint (a whole leg that I boned out).
I used an 80% brine with pickling spice & extra rosemary for 24 hours in a fridge. Then after rinsing, cold smoked overnight in my barrel smoker.
Unfortunately the result after slow roasting in the oven, was something that resembled salt beef & was pretty much inedible.
Having consulted your book, you suggest a 40% brine- which I will try next time, but I wondered if you had any suggestions, hints or tips for lamb?

Hope you are both well.
Regards, Vaughan.

Hi,

Smoked lamb should be superb… I’m sorry yours was not so good! 80% brine would be required if you were not going to cook it – ie just eat it cold smoked, thinly sliced like Parma ham. A 40% brine should be perfect – but if you are particularly sensitive to over salting you can reduce it even further if you are going to cook it through. I think the salt improves the texture and ensures all the juices are full of flavour.

We used to roll it in oil and rosemary prior to hot smoking it, then serve it with an orange (and rosemary) jelly… mmmmm….

Good luck!

Georgina

Snow, medals, a former boss and a new smokehouse for Essex…

Smoky Jo — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 09:09:39 +0000

Our +1 citation for customer service, friendship and making it through the snow…

There are more photos in our main gallery.Having managed to get to The Wild Boar on a very snowy day, last time we were there we got medals! Andy Lemm, Wild Boar manager presented us with our Ambassador +1 medals and certificate – we are very proud and look forward to wearing our badges when we are back smoking there on 9th March. (Places still available!)

On our last course we were joined by more members of the Popplewell family as well as Smoky Jo’s former boss… from way back… as he said “inasmuch as anyone can be her boss…”

Most recently we welcomed Katja and Colin to Shap for a commercial smoking course. They joined us for a two day course last year and were so inspired they are now planning their own smokehouse near Hanningfield Reservoir in Essex. – Good luck!

A new smoking year kicks off at The Wild Boar… in the snow!

Smoky Jo — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:56:40 +0000

I think all those that made it to the first smoking course of the year deserve medals… Smoky Jo, Smoky Geo, chef Russell, John and Gill, Chris and Yvonne – as well as our guests from Canada, Keith and Marilyn who joined us for dinner – and what a feast it was! Russell is a chef at the Wild Boar – he worked the breakfast shift, then came on the food smoking course with us and was back in the kitchen for dinner service… I rather suspect he had been on dinner the night before as well, what with other staff being snowed up!

A Happy New Year from a confirmed (food) smoker!

Smoky Jo — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:43:36 +0000

We thought we would share this lovely message from one of our international clients! Her American Salad company prides itself on Tuscan Goodness, American Taste. And she’s English!

Hi,

I was on one of your smoking courses in August last year, which I enjoyed thoroughly, by the way. However, I had to wait ’til this Christmas for Santa (commonly known as “Dad”) to bring the equipment I needed to put in to practice all those great ideas you gave me!

You may remember that I am a chef over here in Italy, which is one of the reasons I wanted to learn to smoke. Well after the annual New Year’s hell of catering until stupid hours, I unwrapped my Eco smoker and cold smoke generator, sat down with a cup of tea, read your book, (which incidentally is brilliant!) then went to my local market for some inspiration. I wanted to keep things simple for my first time, but also experiment with whatever took my fancy. So along with the classic piece of salmon, Emmental and garlic, I also smoked chickpeas and pumpkin. I have to say I am gobsmacked at how well everything turned out! I was particularly pleased with the pumpkin, which I made into soup after roasting it. It was so delicate, yet the flavour was much deeper than when the pumpkin is not smoked. Then, as I specialise in making different hummus’, I thought that smoked hummus would be interesting – and boy isn’t it?! I will play around with smoking times, but what a sensational taste.

I wanted to share this with you as a little ‘Thank you’ for your inspiration, ideas and your excellent teaching skills. I famously have a 3 second memory, so I was worried what you taught me way back in August would have seeped out ages ago. Not so, and with a little revision through the help of your book, it went swimmingly.

I’ve been recommending your courses left, right and centre – in fact, last night we were invited to dinner at a friend’s house and a Scottish ex-pat mate was there. I bought some of the salmon along. They all thought it was incredible, but he went absolutely bonkers!! I might be able to make this a little side line!!

Anyway, thanks so much again. I’ve got lots more ideas I want to give a go – I’ll let you know how they go.

A very Happy New Year to you both.

Best wishes,

Paula Carrier

Good Food and Company, Bad weather!

Smoky Jo — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:43:31 +0000

This is a belated posting as I bumped into Cerys recently in Kendal and asked if she had seen one of the aprons she appliqued for us on the blog… and she hadn’t … and that was because I hadn’t blogged it…

Cerys and Alistair came on a two day smoking course earlier this year and Cerys’ artistic inclinations were prompted by our cartoon characters (in our book) to decorate aprons for us. We have regarded them as too good to wear but when we did a demonstration for Food and Company, Jo wore hers with pride.

Food & Company host their courses in a wonderful purpose-designed barn within the grounds of a stately home – Mirehouse – near Keswick. As you can see from the pictures it is a fabulous space – it was warm and wonderful when we arrived, having battled storm and tempest from Shap to get there. We did a little outdoor smoking, a little indoor smoking, some food preparation, witty banter (well, I thought so) and some eating! We joined the guests for lunch at caught up with a lady who had long wanted to come on a course so she could smoke her mushrooms, a friend of hers who had previously been to Smoky Jo’s and several former customers of ourse from when we ran the Old Smokehouse at Brougham Hall.

Book signing at Orton Farmers’ market, meeting up with some foodie friends… and singing alpacas!

Smoky Jo — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 23:47:43 +0000

On Saturday Smoky Jo met up with old friends and new as she signed copies of “Smoking Food at Home with Smoky Jo“. We look forward to seeing some of them next year here at Shap. The stall next to her was was being run by Hospice at Home volunteers; we came away with Christmas cards, a cooking rack (for our smokers) and a garlic/cherry stoner. We share the volunteers enthusiasm for Hospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland; palliative care at home would simply not be available in the area without this wonderful charity.

Jo was taking her place behind a stall at Orton Farmers’ Market for the first time since we sold The Old Smokehouse in 2004 (although Jo also ran the market for a while before handing the reins over to Leanne. Just as well, I am not sure Jo would have looked quite so good as a Christmas Elf!)

It was good to catch up with Dianne Halliday from Country Fare, whose mince pies are light as a feather so you can eat extra… We also saw David Knipe, chicken, duck, goose and egg farmer who can now be found by Heartwood – that’s the heart-shaped woodland visible to the east of the M6 as you drive through the Howgills, south of junction 38. Stewart Lambert from Kitridding (great farm shop and cafe!) chose to be a “pig in a blanket” for the day – though whether that was for marketing his beef, lamb and pork or just to keep warm, who knows…

Finally… the festive atmosphere was created by Appleby in Westmorland Town Band with traditional renditions of carols… accompanied by a rather musical alpaca… I made a movie

School dinners ain’t what they used to be!

Smoky Jo — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:55:24 +0000

I have the privilege to be a member of the Council that governs Malvern College. One of the best – if not the best – independent co-educational schools in this country. Malvern College is an extraordinary school; a wonderful campus set on the side of the Malvern Hills looking out over the Severn Valley.

Last weekend I drove down to Malvern for our usual termly meeting which was followed a superb dinner with this year’s new staff members. A selection of bright, dedicated and committed teachers who bubbled over with enthusiasm for the school, the pupils and their work.

To top it all – came the food! One of the greatest benefits of Malvern College is the house system; a home from home, lead by a team of house mistresses and masters that create a family environment supported by the house tutors and fed by a catering company – Harrisons.

Now, I accept that the meals we were served last Friday were not necessarily what the pupils would be served on a daily basis but the standard of food was. Conjoured up by a team of creative chefs – Rupesh, Adam, James and Matt we were served-

Cornish crab tian with a black pepper and sea salt Shard, crab bisque truffle foam
Saddle of venison, hotpot potatoes, braised red cabbage, with a chocolate thyme jus
Individual sticky toffee puddings, with clotted cream ice cream
A platter of english cheeses with figs, grapes and oatcakes
Coffee and petit fours

So good was this food that I was compelled to take photos to share with you!

Cornish Crab Tian with a black pepper and sea salt shard, and a magical crab bisque truffle foam

Saddle of venison cooked to perfection – the choclate thyme jus was inspirational!

: Sticky toffee Pudding with clotted cream ice cream which was delicious – set off by the strawberries.

Wonderful – even with no smoked food! Almost worth going back to school for!

A barrel smoker, made with a barrel, a barrel… and what looks like a barrel!

Smoky Jo — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:43:35 +0000

A home-made barrel food-smoker

A home-smoked side of smoked salmon

I love the fact that people learn to smoke food with us and then go away and create perfect recipe smoked salmon… Ian has built an incredible smoker – and that side of salmon looks perfect!

Here’s what his wife wrote to us:

“Hi Jo and Georgie Ian attended one of your smoking courses last April and has since made his own smoker, photo attached. Also attached is his first attempt which was a resounding success and tasted delicious. The smoker has now been moved from the garage into the children’s old wendy house – we knew it would come in useful for something one day! Many thanks for sparking his enthusiasm. Kind regards Megan”

Thank you for letting us know!